Year: 2013

August 15, 2013

How Does Your State Rank on Human Trafficking Laws?

Does your state have the basic legal framework in place to combat human trafficking, punish trafficker, and supports survivors? The Polaris Project recently released their 2013 State Ratings on Human Trafficking Laws, which examines the progress states have made in passing legislation to combat both labor and sex trafficking. Continue Reading...
August 15, 2013

Chris ‘Ashton’ Kutcher on Opportunity as Hard Work

PowerBlog readers will be excused for missing this, as I suspect there are not many who frequent the MTV Teen Choice Awards. But don’t let your skepticism prevent you from watching this video of Ashton (really, “Christopher Ashton”) Kutcher’s acceptance speech, in which he exhorts the younger generation to get its hands dirty with hard work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuBSRC1zpHw Continue Reading...
August 15, 2013

Worry is a Poverty Trap

There’s some evidence that the distress associated with poverty, such as worry about where your next meal is coming from, can create a negative feedback loop, leaving the poor with fewer non-material resources to leverage against poverty. Continue Reading...
August 15, 2013

Explainer: What’s Going on in Egypt?

Hundreds of supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi were killed in Cairo this week by Egyptian security forces. The protestors, mostly members of the Muslim Brotherhood, responded by destroying Coptic Christian churches throughout the country. Continue Reading...
August 14, 2013

Commentary: Divorce, Denial and the Death of God

Which came first, the collapse of the family or of traditional Christianity? “It’s a chicken-or-the-egg riddle, whether the disintegration of the family came first or the collapse of traditional Christian faith did,” write Elise Hilton, in this week’s Acton Commentary. Continue Reading...
August 14, 2013

5 Things Craigslist Teaches Us about the Beauty of Trade

I’ve been a Craigslist fan for years, using it for everything from snagging free goods to securing new jobs to buying baby strollers to selling baby strollers—you name it. Yet even as I’ve become somewhat of a Craigslist veteran, swapping this for that and that for this, each experience brings with it a new set of surprises and takeaways, particularly when it comes to the way I view trade and exchange. Continue Reading...
August 14, 2013

Battle in Seattle: Citizens United

As a child of the 1970s, your writer was witness to an amazing transformation in a large swath of the religious community. In what seemed like a wink of an eye, clergy, religious and nuns grouped together with yippies, hippies, and other left-of-center tribes to advance progressive causes. Continue Reading...